Scott Agnew is relishing the challenge of combining playing with his assistant manager duties at Airdrie.
The 33-year-old joined the Diamonds last week in a dual capacity role where he will assist manager Ian Murray - who signed Agnew at previous clubs St Mirren and Dumbarton.
The pair share a brilliant relationship and Agnew admits he’s excited about his new role and his first steps into coaching.
“I can’t wait,” Agnew admitted. “It’s absolutely brand new to me but I’m more than happy with the added responsibility because it’s something that I’ve never shirked.
“I’m at an age now where I’ve played enough games and I feel like I can offer support to the boys and Ian.
“I’ve played under him at other clubs so he must think that I’ve got something to offer. It’s been great so far and I’m really looking forward to it.
“Firstly, I want to be an asset to Airdrie on the park but anything that I can do off the park then I’m happy to help.”
Agnew’s decision to leave East Fife after three productive seasons was due to relocating from Glasgow to Ayrshire.
The former Rangers youngster also runs a successful fitness education business and the commute to Fife would have been too problematic.
Although numerous clubs made Agnew offers, he was convinced to join Airdrie after being impressed by their ambition.
He said: “I moved from Glasgow back down to Ayrshire so the travel to Methil was just going to be too much.
“They train in Edinburgh so the travel was going to be too demanding as I run my own business too.
“East Fife were brilliant with me to release me from my contract because I still had a year left. We came to an agreement due to travel reasons but I thoroughly enjoyed my football there.
“If it wasn’t due to relocating then I’d still be at East Fife. I really enjoyed my three years there and everybody was really good with me.
“As soon as I became available, a few clubs reached out to me from League One and I was pleased with the offers that came in.
“But obviously I know Ian really well and he spoke to me about combining playing with the assistant manager’s role.
“It wasn’t something that I was looking for but I spoke to the Chairman and he put forward some great ideas.
“I’m really excited about the responsibilities that I’ll have and I was immediately attracted. It’s been busy but I’ve enjoyed being involved in off the field issues like recruitment.”
Agnew has been working tirelessly to add new faces to the Diamonds squad and he hopes his relationships with current players can prove beneficial - even if it costs him his starting place.
The former Hamilton midfielder said: “I’m my biggest critic so if I’ve not played well then I know before anyone so it won’t be awkward [if I’m dropped].
“If I can bring in players that are better than me then I’d be delighted.
"I feel that I can support from a recruitment standpoint because I’m still involved in playing and I’ve played at a similar level to the types of players that we want to bring in.
“It’s not easy because it’s very competitive and lots of clubs can offer good money. We’ve got a great stadium and there are so many benefits about coming to Airdrie.
“I’m speaking to players everyday about signing but we want ambitious players because we want to challenge. We need to be patient because we have to ensure that we recruit the right players.
“We want young players to come in and be ambitious. I say to players that we are looking at that we don’t want them to be at Airdrie for five years because we want them to develop to play at the highest level.”
League One was the most competitive division in Scotland last season which led to an exciting climax.
After embarking on a brilliant run, Airdrie narrowly missed out on promotion after losing to Morton in the Championship play-off final and Agnew is anticipating another tough season.
“I think it will be even more competitive. Every season there seems to be a little twist which makes it harder and it will be tough.
“There aren’t any easy games in League One. We struggled against Dumbarton last season with East Fife and they ended up in the relegation play-offs.
“It’s the responsibility of Ian and I to build a squad that is capable of competing at this level.”
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video
